Azerbaijan, Baku, 28 April / Trend corr. E.Ismayilova / The Communication and IT Ministry of Azerbaijan has received proposals from three companies -Orbital Science Corporation, Thales and other to make its cosmic communication satellite, Iltimas Mammadov, Deputy Communication and IT Minister of Azerbaijan, stated.
"Currently we are considering these proposals, but we expect to receive more techno-economic efficient proposals," Deputy Minister stated.
Today, the Ministry is considering three main possible versions to launch the satellite - to receive area in the space, use of already existed space and joint launch of satellite with other companies.
Ministry has already appealed to International Telecommunication Unions to allocate an area for the satellite. This issue is expected to be solved until the end of 2008.
Presently, the Ministry is also considering the proposal on joint launching of satellite and use of already existing space. All the proposals are expected to be discussed with other Ministries in Azerbaijan as well.
Initially, the project will be financed by the Government, but later it will become self-supporting project. Some 25% or 30% of the satellite resources will be used by Azerbaijan and other part of its capacity is planned to be sold to the countries which the satellite will cover. The cost of AzerSat project is $80mln -$100mln. The satellite will cover Europe and some part of Asia - Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
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